Lucy the Valiant Queen
by liuli-xia
Summary: SEQUEL TO "SUSAN THE GENTLE QUEEN"  Lovers' kisses and stolen glances in halls of grandeur and during ballroom dances were always girls' fantasies but weren't hers real back in her older days of yesteryear?


This is the Sequel to "Susan the Gentle Queen". This one is not a crossover and completely follows the Narnia Canon from the seventh book.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own this wonderful series.

_Blah= Narnia References_

Blah= normal/human reality

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><p><em>Lucy the Valiant Queen<em>

Light chestnut waves glinted in the autumn sunlight streaming through the trees. The tresses lay scattered in the ground, all leading back to a milk-white face with deep hazel-green eyes rimmed with long dark lashes, a button nose lightly dusted with barely-there freckles, and a pale perfect pair of bow-shaped lips. Absently, dainty little hands fashioned a wreath of wild flowers from the forest floor.

Petals soft, smooth, delicate_ and innocent like she was once upon a time _danced between milk-white fingers, woven into an incomprehensible pattern. Flowers bent to her will as her mind wandered away into days long gone _back when she was years older than she is now._ Clear skies rang with bird calls _while nymphs and dryads sang_ and the world was at peace. Summer days never ended, drifting and blending into one another as strings into a tapestry _like those that showed their greatest feats. _

So many memories came bubbling to the surface as her floral crown accented her hair. Standing in the clearing, she makes herself into a queen _not pretending but remembering the Valiant of old years passed_ and holds her hand out to a suitor visible to her mind's eye. Lovers' kisses and stolen glances in halls of grandeur and during ballroom dances were always girls' fantasies _but weren't hers real back in her older days of yesteryear?_

Grace flowed in her blood _side by side with ancient, foreign, forgotten magic_ as she danced to her own melody that none else could hear_ but they'd say it was unworldly if they could_ but her brothers and sister knew the song well. Her mind's eye filled the clearing with exotic flowers _from an entire other world_ and lavishly dressed guests. The same song played over and over in her head _and hadn't they danced to it much too often but still they couldn't dance without hearing that song play at least once_ and she wished that the others could be here to see what she saw _because the could see like her._

Leaves and petals drifted lazily down, riding the air to their final stop _like enchanted white snow of a nearly endless winter_ and she stiffens ever so slightly _because the Valiant was always ready. _Reflex alone drives her hand to her waist _where protection in a gleaming knife had always rested by healing_ but slips it into her pocket as the image is shattered_ because spells are cold and white and icy and so wrong they hurt._ A slight frown pulls the pale bow-mouth as she fingers a little glass bottle that was such a precious gift to her _but what use is it now that swords and shields are gone forever_ and she sighs with the fading dreams _really memories but who would believe her?_

Barely-there footsteps carry her through the trees towards the house _because is so far away and she cannot go back just yet. _There, her brothers worry for her ever so much even though they all know that she is just fine on her own _since the Valiant had been a war-time queen once upon a time_ but it's just so very hard not to worry because she was always the youngest _and the kings always protected their queen(s)._

She can see the house perfectly now _but home has towers and spires and walls of ivory-white stone_ and smiles because her family is there waiting for her, except for her sister who had left them to go across the ocean _like a scared, lost queen_ looking for a new life _because she know how to believe without fear anymore._ The youngest merely prayed _to Aslan because who else could she pray _to keep her sister safe and to bring her back to them because they were incomplete without her _and didn't He say they needed two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve?_

She sat on the train the next day, older brother across from her and the younger beside her with four others as they talked of days gone by _even if two were elderly, they had all been the same old age at one time._ Tales were told of grand adventures and misdeeds that were forgiven in the end _and all of every tale was true_and they shared their mundane lives_ and wished for another adventure in another lifetime_.

She felt it before the others _because she could always feel even a pinch of magic_ and a smile lit up her face. The roar _of a lion, not a train_ came first and she stood in the midst of the chaos around her. _It was the call_ and with a laugh Lucy melted away _and The Valiant Queen stood in her place in Aslan's Land._

_The Valiant was _home_ at last_.

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><p><strong>AN: Next is "Edmund the Just King"**


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